Mark Chagall. Plus confession of a walkaholic

We've almost missed this event, but here it is:

la Maison bleue. Marc Chagall said no to skeuomorphism when Sir Jonathan Paul "Jony" Ive wasn’t born yet

Hi there, fellow walker. Surprised? Me too, a little. Never thought this way about walking, but if you dig deeper it become extremely obvious. Walking is a tool for better procrastination. There are plenty of quotes about how good walking is. How it helps with one’s health improvement and how good it is for organizing thoughts and clarifying mind. It’s only better face of truth. You waste tons of time walking and counting steps. Even more: you participate in endomondo contests for those who walk.

It’s time to confess for me. Late during this winter i’ve found myself quite overweight. I’ve discovered this fact walking from office back home. For sure, this walk was somewhat healthy exercise: it took about two hours and was about 15 kilometer long. And of course it was full with trouts and building of world control plans. Total domination))

So one evening it was icy and windy and I fell down, barely injured my back and was zero as an athlete for a couple of months. Looks like start of a bad story? Sort of, so let’s find a shortcut. That’s what i’ve found out for myself from this long walks in winter and early spring. One absolutely should do things for fun or money only: life’s too short for other things. One shouldn’t walk too much due to awful statistics: more walking -- more chances to break your back during doing extremely stupid thing. Walking delays everything: you walk, time passes by.

You walk and plan things while you should just do things. And some more things to confuse you even more: walking is fun? Then walk, but don’t stick to it. Think twice before choosing walk instead of any other possibility. Walking is addictive. And yes, walking consumes time.

Do more with less: run instead or work harder. Sorry for inconvenience, dear. But you’ll find this out for yourself sooner or later, so why shouldn't I tell to this truth right now? If it seems obvious for you, you’d better shut your mouth since we all of rather different mind power and it took me this long to realize walking myth due to your silence beforehand. So why should anybody speak now? )

Listen to the music as you run, it helps a lot

Lime splashing into water. Extremely shallow DoF Uploaded by matchstick

So we finally settled matter of training plan down. We are good boys and girls and had done good job. Let's talk about our first or one of those first days when we hit the ground with our newbie running feet. First week of training is quite simple when looking at our timers and thinking on training time. You have only 5-15 minutes a day to run, here is almost nothing to fear. Second week reveals new problems -- you run about 20-40 minutes and you need to fill them with something to let you be happy and not fell asleep.

There are options, as usual. Believe me or nit, but there are many. Some say, that listening to the music is the best one, but here we come to the problem of play-lists -- you have to create ideal one for your every run or you would stop every 3-4 minutes and search for a comfortable tune which really fits your current mood. Many people fell nice and like their own breath as it sounds during training. It's an option for those runners, who breathe right. Or who breath good. Or for those who are going to improve their breathing technique (we'll discuss it later). The third option is to use special tracking software with your smartphone. It will tell you your current training data like speed (average and current), pace (all the same), time, distance and even transmit data from heart-rate monitor if you have one. This dataset will change from program to program, but I use runkeeper with android phone, it works good and I sure as hell may recommend it.

So there are no more options and it's hard. Like a rock. You are free to combine these techniques, like mixing up music and software vocalized training data. It's a bes option so you can listen to your favorite tracks and don't have to constantly check your timer.

As for me, I prefer radio, but there are days when I just run in silence or listen to the software voice in between my ears. By the way. Do you remember your first running gadget? Yesterday I spotted ipod mini 4 gb blue model in local used electronics shop. It's almost like the green mini, which accompanied me while I was making my first steps in the running field. Tomorrow I'll show you some shots of this device.

Zombie run to struck lack of imagination!

Hi there, fellow runner! Today is Tuesday, October 23, end of our world is near, apocalypse is almost there, but Chuck Norris is still here to protect us, so let's go on. Halloween is going closer day after day and here we have some creepy madness in our beloved play market -- I've just discovered cool app (haven't tested it yet, but sure will). App is called "Zombies, Run!" and here is what it all about:

Zombies, Run! is an ultra-immersive running game and audio adventure
You tie your shoes, put on your headphones, take your first steps outside. You’ve barely covered 100 yards when you hear them. They must be close. You can hear every guttural breath, every rattling groan - they’re everywhere. Zombies. There’s only one thing you can do: Run!
Zombies, Run! is an ultra-immersive running game and audio adventure, co-created with award-winning novelist Naomi Alderman. We deliver the story straight to your headphones through orders and voice recordings - and when you get back home, you use the supplies you’ve collected while running to build and grow your base.

You can find out more on this app at it's play store page here.

It looks like normal running application with GPS tracking and all related stuff, but delivers cool zombie story in which you can take part. Run through storyline, collect goods, finish missions and develop your base. It's all about motivation again -- it's autumn out there and nobody sane will ever get nose out of his or hers sweet home to get cold and unfriendly run. The only way is to add some game to your running routine and here some of us are being shocked while faced their complete lack of imagination. And for the rest of us with this lack cool game developers develop such good software.

Cycling vs running: is there any competition?

Shiny alphadrive bike gear, I like cycling and what about you?

Hi there, fellow runner! How about cycling? Do you like it? Let's talk about cycling as an alternative to running. I don't really think that riding a bike can be anyway competitor to running. And here are few points from which I've noticed the difference. First of all is complicity -- riding a bike involves service, care and a place to store your bicycle. So you can't just wake up one day and say that tis is the day. You have to be prepared, to get bike from garage, check it's functions, drive it to service if found any troubles you can't fix on the go. Then you are connected to weather conditions -- it's quite expensive to ride during winter -- you have to buy completely worm outfit and bike gear for winter riding: new tires and more headlights for example. If you store a bike at home, you have to get more attention to it -- it need complete cleanup aftr every ride, because it will be absolutely dirty after every ride.

Cute 666 kilometers on vectra wireless bicycle computer.

Second issue is about fun and lack of motivation. You can cover great distances on bike, but half of your riding time you'll go downhill and make no action, lust sit on the seat. While riding in the city, you can even get in road accident and receive traumas which can be quite dangerous. And air in your city isn't breathable at all, but your body will consume it much more then when you go on foot. There are lot of happy green cities all over our globe, but there are lot of dirty ones and we should note this.

Running is much easier to do then cycling, but cycles are great, if you have one, go for a ride tomorrow. It's fun and beautiful despite all my words above this sentence!

Weekend long run

Hi there, my running friend! Today is the day of great running plans. It's weekend, though you should carefully plan your weekend run. Weekend is designed for long runs naturally. You can work out as hard as he'll and still have plenty of time to recover from most runners light injuries. Like itchy fingers and heavy legs.

Prince Frederick Karl [running] [between ca. 1910 and ca. 1915]

By the way, it's autumn out there, if you hand't noticed yet. Autumn is a perfect time to begin running or to start a weight loss program. Autumn feels like it was designed to run through it naturally too. You can advocate summer or spring, even winter has it's own benefits, but autumn. Oh, autumn has no competitors. It's pretty fun to run in autumn forest. Everithing is clear, air is cool, refreshing and inviting. Sun shines and it is so mild, oh. Your every other step feels like it's not a step on the ground, but a giant jump just to the outer space, in between of distant stars. Maybe I'm too much fond of autumn running, but who cares and does it matter?

Running is all about motivation. While moving yourself through local neighborhood on feet with quite a speed seems stupid at first glance, at a second one it comes to be more interesting process. You do stuff which is not actually useful at first glance and brings no profit and not fun on not fun at all even. And from time to time you begin to receive positive vibrations, your health improves in general, you can carry more weight and take more obligations, offer more cervices at last. So that's how it works, you improve stuff around you. Your life, it's all about improvement to things that are unrelated while you look from distance and seeing connections between your running and your life when look closer. So let's assume that running is finally for the greater good.

And getting back to autumn and weekends, this time you can shift some rules and get some more out your body, run more, run faster and run more intense. Don't ask me why you should try it, if you have such questions, you just shouldn't even try this, follow your training plan, but if you feel nice and want some experiments, just mix some other activities like push ups or sit ups in your training and fell better. 

Tip for a busy runner

Hi there, fellow runner! Today's agenda is full of lifesaving. As I can predict easily, you don't have enough time for anything important during the day. Your work and friends plus family relations consume most of your time and you are drained completely. That's why you are getting fat and feel upset sometimes, right?

There always are few tips for the rest of us, who can't stand the situation. You can't rely on any help from gym, you don't just have time for such activities, according to the terms of the question. But if you look closer at your daily routine, it will reveal two big slices of free time which are terribly underutilized. I'm talking about the way to and from your office.

Try to rethink that way, look at it from the runner's point of view. I, for myself, had discovered that I can achieve 30 minutes of forest running from my path to office and about 30 minutes of plain walking with beautiful landscape in the evening on my way home. Of course you shouldn't rely on this method too much, it's not a substitute to your carefully developed training plan, but as a short time solution it works best.

Runner's log: modern approach

Hi there, fellow runner. Today's agenda will consist of few tips on setting down all your misstated thoughts on running and trainings in one clean and accessible document. If I were short, I might just call it your running log or sport dairy. And it is one of few key points on your way from newbie runner to professional grade athlete. Just follow these simple advices and fell free to get advantage.

Ancient  looking gentleman writing down some misty thoughts (maybe it's his running log?)

Few years ago when I wrote tips for novice athletes like you, I imagined paper notebook with tables and all that writing carp around. Today's issue is about modern ways of note-taking. A bit techy or geeky a little, it does not matter how you will call it, the min idea is easy to get. You should use one of free blogging platform or maybe some cloud based service for editing documents like tables, mind Microsoft or Google solution. There are few benefits. First one is about accessibility. So you can load web page right with your smartphone's browser just after training and fill in few fields. Second benefit is about cost: you pay nothing for this neither in money, nor in time or weight in your backpack.

You can achieve goals and of course set them with running log, create some sort of table like one you create for planning your expenses and fill  in fields for some amount of time -- you can gather statistics or make plans for future weather it;s time for you to participate in races or not. As for me, I am lazy one and use android apps like endomondo or other of the kind. The choice is yours. You can always add some info from sport tracker to your classic table look alike running log or have just information from the application or even go old-school and fill in all cells manually.

There are always more benefits, but you should find out what really matters for you and feel free to leave some comments. Completely yours, runplusdesign.com

Three days a week training or more for a novice runner?

Hi there, fellow runner! Today's agenda will run about daily running. So you are starting your training and following one of entry-level programs. You are running 2-3 days a week and want more, because it seems possible and even easy. Here are some tips and thoughts. People always think that if small amount of something is good, then increasing this amount mean greater good. But it rarely happen this way. In most cases it works upside-down. And increasing something like training frequency without rethinking the process can result in more pain and injuries. You even can think about leaving running for more hard ones. So motivation will be corrupt from the beginning and almost all fun will be lost -- can you really risk this?

J.J. Eller wins 120 yd. Hurdle 1911

For a newbie runner or runner over 40 years old it's very important to have a plenty of leisure to recover body from stress after training. Right after run your body is going to expand it's aerobic capacities -- it's like building more infrastructure so oxygen may be delivered to muscles in more effective way. It consumes time and increasing training frequency can collapse all bodies ventures on this field. So the first keystone is good leisure and a plenty of sleep to recover from a training day.

The second approach to concept of three running days a week lays on three whales -- speed training day, strength training day and long-run day. So here we have some sort of diversification. When you fell like you are ready to improve you shouldn't start with improving training frequency -- it's less important. You can improve speed, strength and distance. Imagine and implement improvements in your routine, add more uphill running for your strength day or add more interesting and complicated intervals to your speed training day. Add more kilometers to your long-run weekend. Rethink the process and feel your aims and passions are fulfilled.